Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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COCHRAN, Hank

(b Garland Perry Cochran, 2 August 1935, Isola MS; d 15 July 2010, Henderson TN) Country singer, songwriter. His paerents divorced when he was 9. He lived in an orphanage in Memphis, then with grandparents, but kept running away. He'd started singing and playing guitar in his grandfather's church. He worked on oil rigs in New mexico at age 12, went to the West Coast and played clubs at 16. He formed the Cochran Brothers with future rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran (they were not related), recorded for Ekko '53-5.

He began writing songs, co-writing (with Harlan Howard) 'I Fall To Pieces' for Patsy Cline '61; he wrote 'A Little Bitty Tear' and 'Funny Way Of Laughin' ' for Burl Ives; 'Make The World Go Away' for Ray Price, 'I Want To Go With You' for Eddy Arnold, etc. He was credited with discovering Willie Nelson; they wrote songs together, and appeared together in the film Honeysuckle Rose '80. He continued writing songs in the 1970s for Nelson, Merle Haggard, Mel Tillis etc; he won over 75 BMI songwriting awards.

His own hit records included 'Sally Was A Good Ol' Girl', then duets '70s with Nelson, Merle Haggard. He was married to country singer Jeannie Seely 1969-79; he wrote her hit 'Don't Touch Me', which won a Grammy '67, and she released an album of his songs that year called Thanks, Hank. He recorded for Liberty '62, Gaylord '63, Monument '67; albums included With A Little Help From His Friends (Capitol '78), Make The World Go Away (Elektra '80). He was still writing hits for Pam Tillis and others in the '80s-90s: Vern Gosdin's 'Set 'Em Up Joe' and George Strait's 'Chair' were country chart-toppers. His own last album was Livin' for a Song: A Songwriter's Autobiography 2002 on the Gifted Few label.